Movable wall panels are used to divide an area into two or more regions. For example, movable wall panels are employed in schools, hotels, and convention centers to divide a large room into two or more smaller rooms. Another common use of movable wall panels is the formation of individual shop fronts within a mall. Clear glass panels are typically stored during business hours to produce a wide-open storefront, and are disposed in front of the storefront during off-business hours to permit the viewing of merchandise, with a pivot door providing selective access.
Movable wall panel systems typically include several components, such as wall panels, trolleys coupled to the wall panels, and tracks within which the trolleys can slide and displace the wall panels. The wall panels are often large planar structures that may be freestanding or attached to one another end-to-end. Many modern applications of wall panel systems utilize freestanding wall panels in order to allow greater versatility over systems using wall panels that are attached end-to-end.
Wall panels are often suspended from the trolleys by pendant bolts. Trolleys, or carriages, are generally wheeled devices that move along tracks affixed to an overhead structure and disposed in the desired direction of travel of the wall panels. Tracks may have intersections or junctions that allow for different configurations of wall panels, resulting in variations in the geometries of the divided space.
When using tracks with intersections, junctions, or other transition points, a problem may arise when a wall panel must be moved across a transition point. In many known designs, a common type of transition point involves the intersection of two paths. As a result, a user may have to guide the wall panel along the proper path by looking up and trying to negotiate the trolley through the intersection, while continually advancing the large wall panel. Such a situation presents safety issues as the individual may be unable to watch both the trolley and his or her own footing.
Attempts have been made to overcome this problem with limited success. One example of such an attempt is demonstrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,916 to Karp, Jr. et al., which describes a system having a trolley with two pair of horizontally rotating wheels oriented in different planes. One disadvantage with such a design is that the trolley may not roll smoothly through an intersection and may even become partially entrapped in the intersection when each wheel is aligned with an underlying opening in the track.
Other known designs have attempted to provide systems that are capable of smoothly negotiating an intersection. In this regard, U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,318 to Harris describes a track and trolley system with the ability to negotiate intersections without stopping. This system involves a trolley having four wheels mounted in laterally spaced tandem pairs for rotation about parallel horizontal axes, similar in configuration to a conventional automobile. One disadvantage of this system is that the trolley may be unable to travel laterally, or in the direction of the horizontal axes, traveling instead primarily fore and aft, or along the direction of wheel rotation.
One design that allows the trolley to make sharp turns is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,462 to Kordes, which is directed toward a door closer of a movable wall element, but which also discloses a trolley having four wheels each having a horizontal axis, none of which are collinear. Although this type of design may facilitate trolley movement in the two primary directions of wheel rotation, motion along other directions may be hindered.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved wall panel system having a trolley that facilitates multidirectional travel.
There is also a need for an improved wall panel system capable of negotiating intersections with ease.
There is a further need for an improved wall panel system capable of being guided along predetermined pathways on a track having multiple pathway combinations.